No reverie this: Susan was Saddam mole in Senate

The 11-count indictment provides a glimpse into the workings of Iraqi intelligence in the US, but does not accuse Lindauer of turning over any secrets. She went to Baghdad, in 2002 and accepted about $10,000 from Iraq for her services, the document said. ‘‘I’m an anti-war activist and I’m innocent,’’ she said. ‘‘I did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else. I worked to get weapons inspectors back to Iraq when everybody said it was impossible.’’

A cousin of White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr., Lindauer also worked on the staffs of four Congressional Democrats. Political sources in Washington and Anchorage, Alaska, said that her father, John Lindauer, was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Alaska in 1998. He could not be reached for comment on his daughter’s arrest.

According to the indictment, Lindauer began working for the Iraqis in October 1999 after meeting with an intelligence agent in Manhattan. Also known as ‘‘Symbol Susan,’’ she was to provide information on Iraqi dissidents and emigres here. In 2002, she spent about two weeks in Baghdad as a guest of Iraqi intelligence. Her career as an operative began to unravel last summer, after she met with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Libyan spy.

She was charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi government and violating restrictions on travel and financial dealings with Iraq. If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison. Most of her Congressional and media jobs in Washington were short-lived, lasting a year or less. She seemed to hover about the edges of the capital’s political and journalism circles.

—LAT-WP